A review of recent activity in the United States.

Either an overabundance or a deficiency of trace metals in the food chain can ultimately affect adversely the health of livestock and man. Increasing interest in the United States in the distribution of metals in the environment and in metal pollutants has led to widespread interdisciplinary research sponsored by governmental, private and academic groups concerning the availability of trace elements for absorption by plants and animals, and the effects of trace elements throughout the food chain. The state of the art and the needs for research are reviewed by interdisciplinary committees in the National Academy of Sciences and in many government agencies. Research is encouraged through contracts and grants awarded by federal and state agencies and the National Science Foundation to universities for studies of specific metals, specific diseases and correlations between metals and health in specific geographic areas. Effects on the environment of coal-fired power plants, the mining and processing of metals, asbestos, and phosphate, and the disposal of industrial and nuclear wastes have also received much attention in the past few years.     

生态系统生产总值核算制度及管理应用——以深圳为例

“两山”理念提升了我国各级各地政府对生态价值的认识和重视,自然资本核算在全球学界研究及应用已进入新的阶段。如何开展常态化的核算与应用,如何将科研分析转化为管理制度,成为该领域新的研究命题。深圳积极响应中央政府要求,开展生态系统服务价值核算,服务生态治理,在全国（乃至全球）率先制定了第一个政府生态系统生产总值（GEP）核算制度体系。介绍了深圳GEP核算制度体系的建设过程,描述了深圳GEP核算的主要特点,以及"十三五"期间（2016-2020年）深圳GEP试算的结果,讨论了深圳GEP在城市治理方面的应用路径。     

Predictors of Negotiated NIH Indirect Rates at US Institutions

Background

The United States (US) Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Naval Research negotiate institutional rates for payments of overhead costs associated with administration and space usage, commonly known as indirect rates. Such payments account for a large proportion of spending by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Little has been published about differences in rates and their predictors.

Methods

Negotiated indirect rates for on-campus research grants were requested from the Council on Governmental Relations for the 100 institutions with greatest NIH funding in 2010. NIH funding, cost of living (ACCRA Index for 2008), public vs. private status, negotiating governmental organization (Department of Health and Human Services or Office of Naval Research), US Census Region, and year were assessed as predictors of institutional indirect rates using generalized estimating equations with all variables included in the model.

Results

Overall, 72 institutions participated, with 207 reported indirect rates for the years 2006, 2008, and 2010. Indirect rates ranged from 36.3% to 78%, with an average of 54.5%. Mean rates increased from 53.6% in 2006 to 55.4% in 2010 (p<0.001). In multivariable models, private institutions had 6.2% (95% CI 3.7%-8.7%; p<0.001) higher indirect rates than public institutions. Rates in the Northeast were highest (Midwest 4.0% lower; West 4.9% lower; South 5.2% lower). Greater NIH funding (p = 0.025) and cost of living (p = 0.034) also predicted indirect rates while negotiating governmental organization did not (p = 0.414).

Conclusions

Negotiated indirect rates for governmental research grants to academic centers vary widely. Although the association between indirect rates and cost of living may be justified, the cause of variation in rates by region, public-private status, and NIH funding levels is unclear.     

Organization of marine phenology data in support of planning and conservation in ocean and coastal ecosystems

Among the many effects of climate change is its influence on the phenology of biota. In marine and coastal ecosystems, phenological shifts have been documented for multiple life forms; however, biological data related to marine species' phenology remain difficult to access and is under-used. We conducted an assessment of potential sources of biological data for marine species and their availability for use in phenological analyses and assessments. Our evaluations showed that data potentially related to understanding marine species' phenology are available through online resources of governmental, academic, and non-governmental organizations, but appropriate datasets are often difficult to discover and access, presenting opportunities for scientific infrastructure improvement. The developing Federal Marine Data Architecture when fully implemented will improve data flow and standardization for marine data within major federal repositories and provide an archival repository for collaborating academic and public data contributors. Another opportunity, largely untapped, is the engagement of citizen scientists in standardized collection of marine phenology data and contribution of these data to established data flows. Use of metadata with marine phenology related keywords could improve discovery and access to appropriate datasets. When data originators choose to self-publish, publication of research datasets with a digital object identifier, linked to metadata, will also improve subsequent discovery and access. Phenological changes in the marine environment will affect human economics, food systems, and recreation. No one source of data will be sufficient to understand these changes. The collective attention of marine data collectors is needed—whether with an agency, an educational institution, or a citizen scientist group—toward adopting the data management processes and standards needed to ensure availability of sufficient and useable marine data to understand marine phenology.     

Dinosaur Ramblings

Abstract: Over the last 35 years there has been a shift in university wildlife and fisheries academic programs away from management and toward an ecology or conservation ethos. These university changes have been in both research and education. A similar change has occurred in direction among state and federal natural resource agencies. However, the changes exhibited by both groups have not been to the same degree. I believe university academic programs are now scaled more to the ecology—conservation side, while agencies still average to the management side. This represents a disconnect because university academic programs conduct research for these agencies (and others) and also educate future agency employees and provide technical services to agencies.     

On the Compliance of Women Engineers with a Gendered Scientific System

There has been considerable effort in the last decade to increase the participation of women in engineering through various policies. However, there has been little empirical research on gender disparities in engineering which help underpin the effective preparation, co-ordination, and implementation of the science and technology (S&T) policies. This article aims to present a comprehensive gendered analysis of engineering publications across different specialties and provide a cross-gender analysis of research output and scientific impact of engineering researchers in academic, governmental, and industrial sectors. For this purpose, 679,338 engineering articles published from 2008 to 2013 are extracted from the Web of Science database and 974,837 authorships are analyzed. The structures of co-authorship collaboration networks in different engineering disciplines are examined, highlighting the role of female scientists in the diffusion of knowledge. The findings reveal that men dominate 80% of all the scientific production in engineering. Women engineers publish their papers in journals with higher Impact Factors than their male peers, but their work receives lower recognition (fewer citations) from the scientific community. Engineers—regardless of their gender—contribute to the reproduction of the male-dominated scientific structures through forming and repeating their collaborations predominantly with men. The results of this study call for integration of data driven gender-related policies in existing S&T discourse.     

基于文献计量学的直链藻属的研究进展

基于1975—2014年Web of Science数据库中有关直链藻的学术论文,进行了文献计量学分析。研究发现,每年发表论文数呈明显上升趋势,但增幅不大;单篇论文的作者数增长缓慢,近5年每篇论文的作者数开始大于4名;发表论文的学术杂志的影响因子中等偏下,学术影响力不大;以上也映射出此研究方向的冷门性。欧美发达国家对直链藻学术论文的贡献最大,在国际合作方面也处于领先地位。有关直链藻的研究内容仍偏重于基础性研究,分类、多样性和种群生态学方面的研究仍保持一定的热度。淡水湖泊和江河流域是开展直链藻研究的主要区域。     

Aquatic ecology in The Netherlands: What is being done by whom?

Summary About one third of the Dutch environmental research is concentrated on aquatic problems. The largest number of these projects is physicochemical (65%) and 47% of the aquatic projects contains an ecological component. The aquatic research projects are executed in a large number of different research institutes. Many institutes just formulated one project (43.2%) and about 10% of the institutes formulated 10 projects. The institutes with 10 or more projects account for almost 50% of the total number of projects. However, the size of the research projects with respect to the average total personnel per year may differ considerably. The largest number of aquatic research projects is carried out in governmental institutes. This relative high share of governmental institutes has proportionally increased during the period of 1975–1982. During this period the relative shares of all the aquatic research projects with an ecological component, of the strictly ecological projects and of the ecological/physicochemical projects have also proportionally inclined. However, in absolute numbers there seems to be a decline of both ecological and non-ecological projects on aquatic problems.     

The utopian promise of government

Today academic debate and public discourse about the Pacific often focuses on the collapse of government – on failed nation-states. Yet ever since Self-Government and Independence, Melanesians have experimented with developing their own alternative forms of local government, which have often embraced but also side-tracked official governmental schemes, structures, and practices. Using the Pomio Kivung movement in East New Britain, this article explores how government, together with its projects and promises of sovereignty, civilization, and development, is displaced and re-mediated through the world of the dead. The customary shamanic worlds of dreams and possession are redeployed and merged with the pastoral practices and disciplinary schemes of civilizing projects originally belonging to Western churches and governments.     

Aggression and violence: perspectives on integrating animal and human research approaches

Aggression and violence are concerns that engage us across society as moral and cultural issues. They are also critical issues for mental health research--both for survivors and for understanding how such behaviors occur. Interpersonal violence often explodes in deliberate acts of physical force leaving survivors behind with a diminished sense of control that is often shadowed by persistent fear and anxiety. The treatment of the victims is a clear and immediate concern; from their perspectives the medical consequences require effective attention whether they suffered as a result of acts of nature, mental disease, ideology, or combinations of these. At the same time preventing violent behavior from happening in the first place is a compelling challenge for public health research.     

Drivers for the emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne protozoal and bacterial diseases

In recent years, vector-borne parasitic and bacterial diseases have emerged or re-emerged in many geographical regions causing global health and economic problems that involve humans, livestock, companion animals and wild life. The ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne diseases are affected by the interrelations between three major factors comprising the pathogen, the host (human, animal or vector) and the environment. Important drivers for the emergence and spread of vector-borne parasites include habitat changes, alterations in water storage and irrigation habits, atmospheric and climate changes, immunosuppression by HIV, pollution, development of insecticide and drug resistance, globalization and the significant increase in international trade, tourism and travel. War and civil unrest, and governmental or global management failure are also major contributors to the spread of infectious diseases. The improvement of epidemic understanding and planning together with the development of new diagnostic molecular techniques in the last few decades have allowed researchers to better diagnose and trace pathogens, their origin and routes of infection, and to develop preventive public health and intervention programs. Health care workers, physicians, veterinarians and biosecurity officers should play a key role in future prevention of vector-borne diseases. A coordinated global approach for the prevention of vector-borne diseases should be implemented by international organizations and governmental agencies in collaboration with research institutions.     

Tools and Materials for the Crafts

A brief examination of early childhood music education in South Africa, through an investigation of government documents and academic literature, leads to an impression that music is embraced in a broad framework of meeting young children's cultural and artistic needs. There is an overriding consciousness of the value of providing children with connections to their cultural heritage and instilling in them appreciation for one another's cultures and respect for diversity. More specific policy for each age level of early childhood in several governmental departments is needed to protect children's voices and to ensure not only that their musical heritage and artistic creativity are nourished and fostered but also that we listen to what they say through their music.     

Systemic regulation of intestinal iron absorption

The intestinal absorption of the essential trace element iron and its mobilization from storage sites in the body are controlled by systemic signals that reflect tissue iron requirements. Recent advances have indicated that the liver-derived peptide hepcidin plays a central role in this process by repressing iron release from intestinal enterocytes, macrophages and other body cells. When iron requirements are increased, hepcidin levels decline and more iron enters the plasma. It has been proposed that the level of circulating diferric transferrin, which reflects tissue iron levels, acts as a signal to alter hepcidin expression. In the liver, the proteins HFE, transferrin receptor 2 and hemojuvelin may be involved in mediating this signal as disruption of each of these molecules decreases hepcidin expression. Patients carrying mutations in these molecules or in hepcidin itself develop systemic iron loading (or hemochromatosis) due to their inability to down regulate iron absorption. Hepcidin is also responsible for the decreased plasma iron or hypoferremia that accompanies inflammation and various chronic diseases as its expression is stimulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6. The mechanisms underlying the regulation of hepcidin expression and how it acts on cells to control iron release are key areas of ongoing research.     

From Research to Practice: Which Research Strategy Contributes More to Clinical Excellence? Comparing High-Volume versus High-Quality Biomedical Research

The question when and to what extent academic research can benefit society is of great interest to policy-makers and the academic community. Physicians in university hospitals represent a highly relevant test-group for studying the link between research and practice because they engage in biomedical academic research while also providing medical care of measurable quality. Physicians’ research contribution to medical practice can be driven by either high-volume or high-quality research productivity, as often pursuing one productivity strategy excludes the other. To empirically examine the differential contribution to medical practice of the two strategies, we collected secondary data on departments across three specializations (Cardiology, Oncology and Orthopedics) in 50 U.S.-based university hospitals served by 4,330 physicians. Data on volume and quality of biomedical research at each department was correlated with publicly available ratings of departments’ quality of care, demonstrating that high-quality research has significantly greater contribution to quality of care than high-volume research.     

Appropriate biotechnology for sustainable agriculture in developing countries

Many transnational organizations are investing heavily in biotechnological research¹. They are primarily interested in activities such as the sale of chemicals and/or food processing. Consequently, research leading to an expansion in the use of chemicals or a reduction of commodity prices is advantageous to those companies. An increase in the sale of chemicals can, for instance, be expected as a result of research on herbicide resistance², a further reduction of commodity prices can be stimulated by biotechnological research directed at cost reduction or finding cheaper substitutes³. Western governmental research institutes and universities contribute to these research directions by cooperating closely with these companies^4,5.In view of these developments, it can be expected that biotechnological research will contribute to a further decrease in commodity prices and further instability of the agricultural structure in many developing countries and, consequently, an acceleration of migration to the already overcrowded cities.The question is, can biotechnology also contribute to sustainable development in rural areas by assisting small-scale and semi-subsistence farmers? I suggest it can.     

Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic Performance

Despite the old adage not to ‘judge a book by its cover’, facial cues often guide first impressions and these first impressions guide our decisions. Literature suggests there are valid facial cues that assist us in assessing someone’s health or intelligence, but such cues are overshadowed by an ‘attractiveness halo’ whereby desirable attributions are preferentially ascribed to attractive people. The impact of the attractiveness halo effect on perceptions of academic performance in the classroom is concerning as this has shown to influence students’ future performance. We investigated the limiting effects of the attractiveness halo on perceptions of actual academic performance in faces of 100 university students. Given the ambiguity and various perspectives on the definition of intelligence and the growing consensus on the importance of conscientiousness over intelligence in predicting actual academic performance, we also investigated whether perceived conscientiousness was a more accurate predictor of academic performance than perceived intelligence. Perceived conscientiousness was found to be a better predictor of actual academic performance when compared to perceived intelligence and perceived academic performance, and accuracy was improved when controlling for the influence of attractiveness on judgments. These findings emphasize the misleading effect of attractiveness on the accuracy of first impressions of competence, which can have serious consequences in areas such as education and hiring. The findings also have implications for future research investigating impression accuracy based on facial stimuli.     

Undergraduate students in research: Accommodating undergraduates in the lab is a mutually beneficial relationship

Giving undergraduate students an opportunity to partake in a research project pays back for both students and the lab. Subject Categories: S&S: Careers & Training

Participating hands‐on in an academic research project can be a fascinating and valuable educational experience for undergraduate students. It not just teaches them additional and transferable skills—such as written and oral communication, critical thinking, or information literacy—but also could be an important factor for deciding on an academic research career. Even if the level of involvement in research projects varies between labs and institutions, students still gain such valuable experience, much more than they gain from the standard laboratory courses that usually perform only pre‐tested experiments with expected outcomes. On the other end, the research labs that accommodate undergraduate students also benefit from overall research progress and mentoring experience.     

Conservation strategies for coastal wetlands in the Gulf of California,Mexico

Wetlands worldwide, the fisheries they support, and the communities that depend on them are threatened by habitat modification. We describe strategies being used for wetland conservation in the Gulf of California, Mexico, their effectiveness, and challenges for implementation. We base our analysis on the authors’ experience working for local environmental non-governmental organizations and available literature. The strategies discussed include public and private policy instruments such as Environmental Impact Evaluations, environmental land easements, concessions and transfer agreements, Natural Protected Areas, and international agreements such as the Ramsar convention and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. We present examples from the Gulf of California that highlight some of the challenges to wetland conservation. These challenges range from governmental failure to enforce existing environmental legislation, lack of verification of requirements for development projects, to low economic penalties for wetland modification or destruction. We found that in the Gulf of California successful conservation of coastal wetlands required a combination of policy instruments and relied on integrating science, management, and public participation through partnerships between non-governmental institutions, academic institutions, community stakeholders, and government agencies.     

The burden of service for faculty of color to achieve diversity and inclusion: the minority tax

The exclusion of Blacks/African-Americans, Latinx/Hispanics, and Indigenous people from science has resulted in their underrepresentation in the biomedical workforce, especially in academia. Faculty diversity at academic institutions is unacceptably low (<6%) and has remained unchanged in the past 20 years. Despite low representation, faculty of color are disproportionately tasked with service to enhance diversity and inclusion of the academy, often to the detriment of their research and academic success. This essay offers a perspective on the undue burden of service placed on underrepresented faculty to achieve institutional diversity and inclusion. I reflect on the challenges that faculty of color face trying to maintain a competitive research program while serving the needs of the academy, often in a capacity greater than that of their well-represented peers. I also discuss opportunities for faculty of color to leverage related diversity and inclusion work to boost their career progression and academic advancement.

JoAnn Trejo